Gears of War Creature Design with James Hawkins In this DVD Jay Hawkins works from start to finish on the design for a Gears of War creature called the Locust Hydra.Jay covers everything from the intial thumbnail sketch to the final rendering of the concept used for production.He explains his design process using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Autodesk 3ds Max. Jay also delves into his experiencesin the game industry and at Epic Games, discussing what it takes to be a successful concept artist in today's ever changingand highly competitive market, and emphasizing the importance of teamwork for developing a successful game. 188 Minutes of Lecture Topics Covered: - Designing for games
- Fleshing out ideas in Adobe Photoshop
- Using Autodesk 3ds Max to resolve the form
- Detailing the concept
- Painting over the 3D render
- Working in the game industry
Chapters - A Beast is Born
- Fleshing out Ideas
- Wrapping up the Initial Sketch
- Starting the 3D Concept
- Working the Model
- Getting into Details
- Finishing the 3D Concept
- Polishing it Off
Instructor Bio: James Hawkins is a Senior Concept Artist at Epic Games located in Raleigh, North Carolina.He graduated from James Madison University with a Bachelors degree in fine arts. He worked at several companies includingTimeline Entertainment, Ritual Entertainment and Legend Entertainment.
In 2003 Jay joined the Epic team and has been the primary concept artist for characters, weapons and vehicles.His credits at Epic include Unreal Championship 2, Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War and Gears of War 2. | 
